Babri: HC notice for Advani, Thackeray

Forty months after the CBI filed a revision petition related to the Babri Masjid demolition, the Allahabad High Court today issued notices t...

Forty months after the CBI filed a revision petition related to the Babri Masjid demolition, the Allahabad High Court today issued notices to a host of leaders including L.K. Advani, Bal Thackeray and VHP’s Ashok Singhal. With this, the court has opened the possibility of bringing Advani back into the demolition case as an accused.

Justice M.A. Khan issued the notices on the CBI’s petition — challenging the decision of a Lucknow Special Court in May 2001 to drop proceedings against 21 of the 47 accused in the demolition case.

Though the revision petition came up for hearing several times since it was filed in June 2001, the CBI’s special counsel, P.K. Chaubey, presented his arguments in the court only today.

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When contacted by The Indian Express, Chaubey said he had kept the matter ‘‘in abeyance’’ for over three years because of a public interest litigation pending in the Supreme Court on the question whether the leaders could be let off in the Ayodhya case.

The PIL, filed by Mohammad Aslam Bhure, was dismissed by the apex court in November 2002. Four months later, it revived the matter by issuing notices on a review petition filed by Bhure. But after that, the matter has not been listed for hearing despite several pleas by Bhure’s counsel, O.P Sharma.